Ad Astra - The Alagore War

Author Note - Addressing Criticism

Hello, everyone. I wanted to spend a moment and address a few criticisms I have been getting since Volume 1. But first, I want to say thank you to everyone who is readying Ad Astra. I hope you have been enjoying it and it has been worth your time. You guys have been great!

This post is meant to be a conversation (meaning feel free to post in the comments), and I tried to let my story address these criticisms besides responding directly. When I do talk, I have a tendency to "text" strongly, even though I don't mean to (why I respond less). And I also explain my thought progress which can be seen as me dumping on an individual. As the author, I have learned that my response can have a heavier weight behind it than another reader responding in a comment. 

Please remember, this is meant to be a conversation. I am hoping to explain my perspective, where I am going with the story, and hopefully, to show you why I am doing the way I am doing it. Throughout this, I am not targeting a single person, as many of these criticisms have been made by multiple people on multiple platforms. It became clear to me that I had failed to address these concerns within the story in a clear, meaningful way. I do believe where people are coming from with most of these criticisms (and I take them all as in good faith), all coming from a single origin which I will address. 

I do not believe Ad Astra (AA) is a perfect story as I am always learning. The truth is,  most of the time, when it is time to post a new chapter I am terrified (especially last few weeks XD). Even writing this has been terrifying but I want to speak with everyone. I try to be bold and creative, not taking the easy path but that does not always mean it translates well. And not all ideas are always the best idea, but discovering that is not always easy. I will also state a few examples at the very end of this post where I think I could have done better and the mistakes I made. 

Last disclaimer, it is 100% okay to enjoy story elements that I am addressing and disagreeing. I believe people can enjoy what they want, I just believe it should be part of the appropriate story (I don't expect Star Trek in Lord of the Rings as example). We all have different perspectives and want different things and that is okay. Agains, this is me trying to address and clear up misunderstanding, being transparent and build dialogue as I want everyone to enjoy my story and feel like they are being rewarded by the experience, not me pulling your leg. Thank you.

- Why are you focusing so heavily on the early stage of the war and not skipping to conquer the enemy capital? 

The title is a bit on the noise, but I think it clearly states what most people are thinking. Since Volume 1, I have gotten this impression by many people since the US arrived on Alagore. I was kind of surprised by this, but let ask this question first. Why not? 

Let me first explain the world of Alagore. This is not a low-tech, primitive world. I think that is clear by now. So, why should the story act like they are a classical-era faction? They should act closer to us today. When I started this project, I didn't want to do another Moder vs primitive fantasy because 1) it has been done and 2) It gets boring and hard to write when the antagonist takes a month to send one text message. The people of Alagore are advanced but different than us. 

The concept I am going with here is this. The bad guys are advanced and competent (at least to the best of my writing skillset). They are not weak or inferiors. They can easily pose a challenge to the United States military. They are fantasy space aliens with magical technology. That is the point of the entire concept of AA. How would the US face equal but different factions within the isekai premise? 

Saying that, Why should I rush the opening? I know we have seen many stories where they basically time-skip the beginning. A (insert Earth country) goes to a new world, some time of time skip so they get all the toys now before the story begins. Nothing wrong with that, but it wouldn't work in AA. The self-respecting nation would allow a foreign power to build up forces in their territory because (need to give protagonist plot armor). In this case, Kallem would throw what he could at the Americans now to prevent them from building up, as this should be the weakest point for the Americans. And for me, that is the interesting idea.